Granite Falls School Board candidates cite experience to solve district’s budget woe

GRANITE FALLS — Tough times await whoever is elected to two spots on the Granite Falls School Board.

Schools across the state have felt the pinch of a struggling economy, but Granite Falls — a rural district with a limited tax base — has been hit harder than most.

Layoffs and attrition left the district of 2,266 students with 18 fewer teachers and other staff this fall, down from 158 the year before.

The district’s operating fund reserves dipped to $807 in September compared to $357,000 the year before. The overall operating budget is $20.3 million.

All four candidates on the Nov. 3 general ballot identify the budget as a major issue.

In the District 1 race, challenger Drew Mow shares the ballot with incumbent Rick Short.

In the District 2 race, Rebecca Loney faces Scott Jones, who was appointed to the board a year ago.

Here’s a look at each race.

District 1

Short, the school board chairman, said he brings an important perspective to the school board as its lone Granite Falls High School graduate.

“That explains a little bit why I’m running,” he said. “Having that input of the past maybe adds a pretty good element. You have a great deal of people who have lived here all their lives and struggled with change. I feel I’ve been a good steward working us through this.”

Short said it is important for the district to learn from history. Not that many years ago, the district was in good financial shape, but relied too much on increasing enrollment.

“We put a lot of our eggs on growth to get us out of it,” he said. “The growth didn’t come and the economy went into the tank. If you don’t look at history, it can come back and bite you.”

Short said he joined the board 15 years ago when relations between district administration and teachers were acrimonious. He said he is proud of the rapport today and the improvement to the district’s buildings during that time.

Mow said his educational background and experience with the district’s strategic planning committee gives him consensus-building skills to help move the district forward. The husband, son and brother of teachers said he’s well-versed in educational policy.

Mow said the district can’t expect extra revenue coming from the state or federal government or increased local taxes. It must try to get creative, he said.

“I think if we could encourage the many homeschoolers in our district to attend Granite Falls schools, we could increase enrollment and receive the per-child state allocation,” Mow said.

“The greatest challenge to the school district is maintaining educational standards and staff morale in a time of economic cutbacks,” he said. “The board can help this situation by allocating resources fairly and communicating economic decisions clearly.”

District 2

If elected, Loney said she’d be the lone parent of elementary students on the board.

“I think over time it is easy to lose some of that perspective,” Loney said. “It’s important to have a board made up of a variety of people with a variety of experiences.”

She also said she would bring more than 20 years of experience as a public library manager, having provided oversight over small and large libraries, staffs and budgets.

“Being mindful of the issues we face with having the budget that we do and the fact that it has been cut the way it has, how do we produce the programs we want to produce?” she said. “It will be a tough, tough process.”

Jones said the board must find a way to preserve electives and extracurricular activities that help develop students’ identities and leadership abilities.

“My only agenda is to stretch that dollar as far as we can to provide those kids with the best experience we can,” he said.

“It’s not just the 3 Rs,” Jones said. “It’s also those social experiences. It’s Future Farmers of America. It’s metal shop. It’s wood shop. We are not all going to be software engineers for Microsoft. We are going to need people to build houses and work on cars. We really need to give those kids the broadest experience we can.”

Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com.

Granite Falls School Board, District 1

Andrew “Drew” Mow

Age: 48

Occupation: Director of Magnetic Resonance Imaging at Everett Bone and Joint and instructor of MRI physics and instrumentation at Bellevue College

Richard “Rick” Short

Age: 57

Occupation: Union carpenter

Granite Falls School Board, District 2

Scott Jones

Age: 45

Occupation: Union carpenter